


Afterwards - Episode 7 - A Fire in The Dark

by Windjammers



Series: Afterwards [7]
Category: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 22:12:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18583612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windjammers/pseuds/Windjammers
Summary: Jessica Morgan, a talented artist who was blinded years earlier in one of Dread's first raids, is the key to Dread obtaining a physical mechanical symmetry for his biodread army. Power and the team try to protect her, but when she leaves on her own to meet up with Dread, she learns that the world she knew has been sacrificed for a nightmare world of Dread's 'mechanical perfection.' But what happened afterwards?





	Afterwards - Episode 7 - A Fire in The Dark

_Disclaimer: The following is a work of fan fiction based on the television series,Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. It is not intended to infringe on the copyrights of Landmark Entertainment Corporation or anyone else who may have legal rights to the characters and settings. I don't own the characters. However, I am putting them into an adventure since the show was cancelled and the writers/producers/directors/actors can’t put them into any new adventures._

~*~*~*~*~

There were no more city lights shining in the nighttime. There were no more car horns or loud engines echoing down the roads. There were no more skyscrapers or city parks or pigeons pecking the ground in search of food. There were only memories from those who had seen them before. Pictures of cities weren't abundant, neither were paintings. The only way to "see" the world as it used to be was to have someone who had seen it describe it in detail to those who never had.

Jessica Morgan was a wealth of information about the city that-used-to-be. Perhaps after viewing the ruin and devastation left behind by Dread's constant warring, she felt a need to talk about how it once was, perhaps how it could be again once Dread was defeated. The somewhat rambling conversation started on the flight back to the base. On the outside chance that they could be attacked, Jon had Jessica ride with Jennifer, without doubt the best pilot in the group, while the rest of them flew guard. When Jessica started talking about her life before the Wars, Jennifer had quietly urged her to continue by asking leading questions. One was about Jessica's home.

"My studio was on a side street off Seventh Avenue . I lived on the fifth floor, and had to climb the stairs when the elevator didn't work... which was often. The landlord would not go to the expense of fixing it. It was small but cozy. There was a community garden in the alley below my living room window. I grew potatoes, carrots and cucumbers. Once a month, all of us who used the garden would have a picnic and bring food that we grew. The party would go on late into the night. Those were such fun times."

"I didn't know that there were gardens in the city," Jennifer commented.

"Not many," Jessica told her. "Small tracts of land had to be set aside by the city planners so people could have community gardens. Occasionally, building developers would come in, buy up the tracts and build skyscrapers. I guess we were lucky to still have parks where we could ride bicycles and walk our dogs."

"What's a bicycle?" Jennifer asked.

"A bicycle?" Jessica's voice sounded somewhat surprised. "It's a two-wheeled riding vehicle. Children rode them a lot, but so did a lot of adults. You've never learned how to ride one?"

"I've never heard of them," Jennifer told her.

"Oh," Jessica's voice sounded sad. "I hadn't considered that some very ordinary things didn't exist anymore."

"I've been told life was very different," Jennifer told her. "A lot of things don't exist anymore."

"I saw the ruins," Jessica said. "My city that was so beautiful at night is gone."

"What was it like at night?" Jennifer asked.

"It was magnificent. I loved it, especially just after one or two in the morning. I always was something of a night owl. All the lights, all the sounds -- I got a lot of my inspiration for my artwork then. Have you never seen the city at night?"

"No, not really. I did see a picture of it once. It looked crowded with all the cars," Jennifer pointed out.

"Oh, it was. So many people, all of them running this way and that. And the noises, it was so busy and loud. There were headlights and streetlights everywhere. It had a life all its own that was so different from the daytime," Jessica explained. "I think you might have liked it as well. Did you grow up in the country?"

Jennifer didn't say anything at first, then, "Not exactly. I grew up in Volcania."

That seemed to surprise Jessica. "Volcania? Where Taggart lives? With all those machines?"

"With all the machines."

Jessica thought for a moment. "I thought that the only people who grew up in Volcania were the children Taggart trained as his personal army."

"The Dread Youth. I was one of them until I learned what they were, and then I escaped."

"And now you're with the Resistance?" The idea seemed difficult to comprehend. "You broke the training? I would never have thought that possible."

"It is. The team found me after I ran away and asked me to join. I've been with them ever since."

"Coming up on the base," Hawk yelled, interrupting them. "Start descent."

The thoughts that were going through Jessica's mind would have to wait until later.

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

Jessica sat in the guest quarters at the base, thinking about all that had transpired over the course of a few hours. So much was changed, even more was destroyed, and she hadn't realized the extent of it all. Her view of the world lived only in her memory. Taggart had sacrificed everything for his vision. Yet it wasn't just the fact that so much was gone that distressed Jessica. It was the _memory_ of things lost that was gone as well. If simple things like bicycles could be forgotten in a single generation, what else would be lost forever because of Taggart's destruction?

Her world was gone, and she didn't like this new world they were forced to survive in.

Then there was the Resistance. She had never met Resistance fighters before; she just accepted the fact that there were soldiers fighting Dread. Now that her path had crossed Power's team, she learned so much and, to use a pun, her eyes were opened to the truth.

Life was far worse than she had imagined it to be, and people had no idea of what they were missing.

A knock on the door interrupted her musing, and she said in a loud voice, "Come in."

She heard the door open and smelled the enticing aroma of warm food. "I thought you might like some lunch," Captain Power's voice cut through the darkness.

She heard her stomach growl in response to the idea of food. "Oh, thank you, Captain. Yes, I would."

Jon placed the plate in her hands and then handed her the fork. "We contacted your friends. They'll meet us later today at the rendezvous point."

She could hear an almost resigned tone in his voice. It had been a long day, and he was tired.

"I'm sorry I've been such a bother. I shouldn't have left the way I did. I didn't mean to cause all that trouble or endanger all of you. I just didn't want Taggart to hurt anyone else."

She heard Jon take a seat at the makeshift table. "I understand. I probably would have done the same thing in the same situation."

Jessica tried a bite of the lunch. Edible, but that was the only description she would give to it. Even though she would rather live in the darkness than in the world Dread dreamed of, she did wish she could see some things like food or a friendly smile. As they were leaving the Dread facility, before her sight was taken away from her again, she had a glimpse at the Power team. She was able to put faces with the voices and emotions with the faces. Those few brief moments had allowed her an insight that sound alone might not have given her. Perhaps the captain would be more informative if she were to ask a few questions. "Taggart seems to not like your team, Captain. I have to admit I'm curious about them. I take it they're somewhat unique."

Jon could only agree. "That they are. I don't think there's another resistance group that has the varied abilities my team has. We come from all walks of life, different backgrounds, and each has their own expertise."

Jessica took another bite of lunch. Okay, it was barely edible. She doubted that the Power team had time to plant a garden. They may not have had fresh fruits or vegetables for a long time, only reconstituted nutrients.

"Let me see if I can describe them from what I've heard," she suggested. "Hawk is former military. I can sense a type of discipline in him that you don't find with civilians."

"Right. He was a combat pilot in the Metal Wars," Jon confirmed for her.

"And Tank. He's very strong yet gentle. He acts as infantry in a sense? I've only heard an accent like his a few times before, from someone who was in one of the Babylon sites."

"Babylon 5," Jon answered. "He was one of the leaders of the revolt."

Jessica smiled and took another bite. It was going from being barely edible to not-hardly-edible. Still, she wouldn't insult her host by not eating what was offered.

"Then there's Scout. He's a computer expert and good with technology; I would guess he grew up in one of the technical settlements. If I were to pose a scenario about how you met, it would be that all of you were in the same place at the same time trying to bring down a Dread facility, and you thought he would make a good addition to the team."

She heard Jon laugh. "Close," he told her. "We did work together before he joined the team. He's very good at what he does."

"And makes you laugh while he does it," Jessica added.

"Yes, ma'am, that he does. Sometimes, there's not a lot to laugh about in our line of work."

"The one I can't begin to understand is Pilot. Tell me about her. She truly was in the Dread Youth?"

Somehow, Jon didn't seem surprised at the question. "She was. Top of her classes, youngest youth leader ever appointed. She probably would have been the youngest overunit in the Dread Youth, but she found out the truth behind Dread's new world and risked everything to escape."

Jessica took another bite as she considered that. She didn't think she was going to be able to finish her food. The taste was becoming more unappealing. "But I thought no one ever broke through the training."

"Jennifer's special."

Ah, _Jennifer_ , not _Pilot_ or _Corporal Chase_ , Jessica noticed. Perhaps there was more to the story than she first thought. And his voice... his voice became softer, more inflective. It was how he said her name that said more than mere words ever could. "How did you find her?"

"Alone and fighting," Jon told her. Jessica could sense he was smiling. "She'd found out the truth, and she couldn't stay there any longer. She decided to escape. There aren't many ways a soldier can get away from the Dread forces because they're monitored, but she played dead after an attack. She couldn't arouse anyone's suspicions before she left, so she had to leave without any survival gear."

"None at all?" Jessica was surprised. It was considered madness to go out into the wilderness without food and water.

"She couldn't risk it. I don't know what happened out there, and she's never really told me the details. I know it wasn't good. It was early winter, and she had been out there for weeks by the time we found her. We were flying a patrol over the sector when we picked up a single life sign on the sensors and biomech troopers heading right for it. It wasn't a safe area to be alone in, so we flew in to try to find whoever was out there. Hawk was the first to see her. She was running away from the troopers. She had already swam across a polluted river to try to get some distance between her and them, then she made her way over rocky ground, uphill, which would put them at a further disadvantage. It was a good survival strategy since clickers can't move over rocky ground as quickly as they can on a flat surface, but she had been out there for a long time, she was wounded, exhausted, ill, hadn't eaten or found drinkable water and was almost at the end of her rope. The Dread Youth have survival classes but they don't learn how to survive for that long in the wilderness."

Jessica heard the concern and admiration in Jon's voice. Yes, there was a great deal more to the story than Jon was telling. "She had to be strong to survive all that," she said.

"She is," Jon agreed. "Even then, she was still fighting. The troopers got to her just before Hawk did, and she fought them with a single gun. We showed up and finished them off. She didn't know what to make of us, and we had never met a Dread Youth who had broken through the training before. She didn't trust us, we couldn't trust her -- it was difficult."

Jessica could hear something pained in the captain's voice. "But you trust her now."

"Implicitly. She proved herself so many times when she first came here. She was angry at being lied to and finding out that her life had been stolen from her. Everything that she thought was right was wrong, and she really didn't know where she fit in anymore. There were a few occasions early on when we'd go to a town and the people would not want her there since she had been Dread Youth soldier. She volunteered to leave and join another group if any would have her since she didn't think she was helping us in any way."

"You didn't want to let her go," Jessica pointed out. Jessica wondered if Jon noticed how she emphasized the word 'you.'

"No, I couldn't. She had learned to trust us to some extent by then, and earning her trust is not an easy or a fast process. It's like earning a badge of honor. Before, none of us knew how the Dread Youth were taught, but after we met her, we learned that Dread had stripped away her humanity, that he makes his soldiers believe that being human is inferior to being a machine. She was angry and had to work through that. She learned that she was a good person that never wanted to do anything wrong and who had no idea that what she had done was bad." Jon seemed to get lost in his thoughts for a moment.

What the captain said horrified Jessica. She had no idea that Dread had gone to such lengths to build an army. "What do you mean when you say she was stripped of her humanity?"

She heard Jon sigh. "Dread taught that emotions made you weak and weren't of the machine. Humans were chaotic, machines were perfect, precise. Humans should strive to be more like the machine. One day, they would be immortal minds in perfect metalloid bodies." Jon scoffed. "He took so much from her... from them. She didn't know how to laugh or smile or even what music was." Jon's voice uttered the distaste he found in those statements. Then, "She just needed time and a place to learn how to be Jennifer Chase, not Youth Leader Chase."

Jessica saw more in the captain's words than just praise for a team member. "And you gave her that time."

"She's special," Jon's voice took on that proud tone that Jessica had heard before... ah, so there it was. The truth in his voice that was far more apparent than just what the captain was saying.

"All that deception -- when did it all start to turn around for her?" Jessica asked.

"I don't know if there was a particular moment," Jon said, his voice seemingly more conversational. "It's been a learning process for her from the beginning. I knew she was making real progress a few months after she joined the team. We were evacuating a town just as the biomechs attacked, and there was a five-year-old girl named Maggie we thought had been orphaned. Jennifer was the only person she would talk to or let come near her -- we didn't know why at the time. The next morning, I saw Jennifer sitting in the pilot's seat of the jumpship, Maggie was sitting in her lap, and Jennifer was showing her how the controls worked. She would smile at Maggie and laugh with her, trying to make her happy. That was the first time I ever saw Jennifer smile or laugh." Jon's voice trailed off. Jessica knew he was remembering the moment.

"Later that day, we found Maggie's parents. Her mother and Jennifer fit the same general description, and I think that's what drew Maggie to her."

"And Jennifer connected with her," Jessica concluded. "Giving attention to Maggie gave Jennifer the chance to set aside her anger and just simply... be," Jessica finished for him.

"Yes. That's it." From the tone in his voice, Jessica wondered if the captain had never considered that fact. "She was able to not think about the war or Dread for a few hours. It was healing, in a way."

Jessica considered this as she continued to eat the meal. "Did Jennifer ever see Maggie again?"

"A few times. Her parents are friends of ours. When we go to the Passages, Maggie runs straight for Jennifer. She thinks the world of her."

"So do you," Jessica stated emphatically. "I can hear it in your voice."

"She's a good friend --" Jon started to say.

"No," Jessica stopped him. "I mean, not just that she's a friend. When you speak of her, your voice changes. It's lighter, more emotional. There's more feeling in your words. You care for her."

Jon didn't answer. Had she said something she shouldn't have?

"Once, long ago, Taggart cared for me. Then he became obsessed by his mechanical vision for the world, and I was a mere step in his ambition. He could no longer care for anything or anyone but his precious Machine. His view became very focused, and that was his downfall. He lost every chance he could have had by not seeing what was before him. And you, you see what's in front of you. You care for Jennifer or perhaps I should say that you love her but you refuse to allow yourself to show it," Jessica knew that she was right given the sudden tension she felt in the room. "But you do not refuse to allow yourself to feel it, do you?"

She sensed that the captain stood and was moving toward the door. "Uhm, I'll fly you back in about an hour. Is there anything else I can get you?"

Jessica smiled. "No, Captain. I think I'm fine."

She heard him take a step and then the door shut behind him, and she knew she was alone. She'd been right. Her world was gone. Her world had been lost along with the ordinary everyday things. Beauty, poetry, knowledge -- so much possibly gone forever, but the good captain had no idea what he was missing, and what he was missing was within arm's reach.

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

Jon stood outside Jessica's room for a moment and tried to get his thoughts back under control. How had she known? How could she read him so easily? How could she know what he kept so secret?

How could she hear what no one else could see?

Sometimes, what he felt scared him. He couldn't allow himself to do anything to jeopardize the team, and he wouldn't. Too much was at stake. The war, the future...

He had a hard time explaining to himself how having Jennifer in the pilot's seat in the jumpship meant he knew they would come back from a mission. He reveled in the fact that he could talk to her about simple things over a game of chess. Then, when he saw her smile when she saved his life after a biomech trooper had him cornered gave him a warm sense of ... something? Her whole face lit up when she smiled, and he noticed that she was smiling a lot more lately.

He couldn't let his feelings out. He couldn't let Jennifer know. He couldn't let anyone know. Maybe one day, when things were different...

One day.

There was time.

 

The End


End file.
